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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Call Of The Wild ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book has so much atmosphere, imagery and emotion. It has a fast paced narrative that often had me holding my breath in either hope or despair.
People and dogs are pitted against the harsh elements, each other and the environment in which they live.
After reading this book I understand the title “Call Of The Wild”. It is used to describe Buck’s calling to the past where he is drawn deeper and deeper to his predecessors. He transforms from family pet to a dog in the wild with wolf like and feral behaviour.
This is a remarkable story. Cruel at times but also showing what a dog will do for the love of man.
This one pleasantly surprised me and is now a firm favourite.
“Man and the claims of man no longer bound him.”
White Fang ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is the first paragraph and already I’m captivated.
“Dark spruce forest frowned on either side of the frozen waterway. The trees have been stripped by a recent wind of the white covering of frost, and they seem to lean towards each other, black and ominous, in the fading light. A vast silence reigned over the land. The land itself was a desolation, lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness. There was a hint hint of laughter, but of a laughter more terrible than any sadness – a laughter that was mirthless as the smile of the Sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of infallibility. It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life. It was the Wild, savage, frozen-hearted Northland Wild.”
I loved this story nearly as much as Call Of The Wild.
A wild wolf/dog that eventually becomes tamed.
Both of these stories are about the wilderness and have so much atmosphere. The animal cruelty at times is hard to read but true to life in the wild. Jack London is a remarkable storyteller and I feel that the books stand the test of time and in no way feel dated in their writing style.
This book has so much atmosphere, imagery and emotion. It has a fast paced narrative that often had me holding my breath in either hope or despair.
People and dogs are pitted against the harsh elements, each other and the environment in which they live.
After reading this book I understand the title “Call Of The Wild”. It is used to describe Buck’s calling to the past where he is drawn deeper and deeper to his predecessors. He transforms from family pet to a dog in the wild with wolf like and feral behaviour.
This is a remarkable story. Cruel at times but also showing what a dog will do for the love of man.
This one pleasantly surprised me and is now a firm favourite.
“Man and the claims of man no longer bound him.”
White Fang ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is the first paragraph and already I’m captivated.
“Dark spruce forest frowned on either side of the frozen waterway. The trees have been stripped by a recent wind of the white covering of frost, and they seem to lean towards each other, black and ominous, in the fading light. A vast silence reigned over the land. The land itself was a desolation, lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness. There was a hint hint of laughter, but of a laughter more terrible than any sadness – a laughter that was mirthless as the smile of the Sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of infallibility. It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life. It was the Wild, savage, frozen-hearted Northland Wild.”
I loved this story nearly as much as Call Of The Wild.
A wild wolf/dog that eventually becomes tamed.
Both of these stories are about the wilderness and have so much atmosphere. The animal cruelty at times is hard to read but true to life in the wild. Jack London is a remarkable storyteller and I feel that the books stand the test of time and in no way feel dated in their writing style.
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death
Moderate: Violence
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Two complementary narratives, one from the perspective of a dog trying to survive in the wilderness (“The Call of the Wild”), and the other from the perspective of a wolf finding his place among people (“White Fang”). “The Call of the Wild” is an enjoyable and harrowing story, and it’s definitely the better of the two books. “White Fang” drags a bit in places where London gets a little too caught up expounding on the beauties of the natural world, and there’s a lot of racism directed towards Native Americans that’s really hard to read.
A solid 4 star classic. For anyone who wants to know the naturalism movement. Super philosophical tidbits scattered throughout a solid storyline.
The call of the Wild is quite considerably weaker tho...
Kind of predicted the twist at the end but I appreciate the writing.
This book actually contains TWO Jack London stories. First is...
White Fang
It's riveting. London writes with an amazing ability to stay completely in the present. This leaves the reader scrabbling to figure out what will come next, but there is no sneaky planting of clues or leading you along. You just take each bite of the text and rush to gulp down the next so you can make sense of it all. This places us in the same position as the protagonist, White Fang. The key distinction between man and animals as defined by London at one point, is that they don't ask Why. Without the Why, we're constantly trying to make sense of the What from the limited perspective of a wild dog/husky mix. It's pretty intense.
Not sure what I think of all this "clay" talk. Basically it's nature v. nurture, but sometimes it feels as though London is playing fast-and-loose with that one. Despite all the talk about how all beings are shaped by their circumstances, he still makes reference to WF's basic "nature" and that kind of defeats the whole thing, doesn't it? If pressed, I think we'd find that Beauty Smith's nature outweighed the circumstances of his treatment due to being one ugly sonuvagun.
And, candidly, when I think of animal nature, at some point, I think we should have seen WF deal with the "call of the wild" female dog. Not so much. I read the intro and there is mention of that happening toward the end when WF is domesticated, but why wasn't he pulled away before? After all, his mother lured dogs away pretty easily just by frolicking around and being--female. Made even domestic dogs ditch the camp.
The descriptions of the beatings are hard going. They could have been worse, but, man, they are a heavy trip.
I think the general portrayal of the Indians was pretty shabby. The sour doughs were better, despite being more cruel. And finally, we meet our Grey Eyed Love Master and are supposed to be confident that WF's savior has arrived. I find this all a bit saccharine. Wish WF had bonded with Matt, the dog musher, but, oh well, that's not up to me.
I'm still riveted despite the fact that we're getting really Hallmark-y with WF's desperate efforts to stay with Scott. A bit hokey, but still a good read.
It would be fascinating to do a comparison between this and Kipling's Jungle Books. The portrayal of wild wolves is similar, but very different. This lacks the childlike magic of Mowgli's communication with the wolves, even though we theoretically get to know London's wolves better by being literally inside the head of his main character, White Fang.
Call of the Wild
Well, at this point, I'm kind of dogged out. This one is very similar to the other. Only difference is that this dog starts domestic and ends wild while the other was the opposite. Again, we have the crazy love between a dog and man. Meh. Again we have incidents of cruelty that make us cringe. Again we have some beautiful descriptions of the danger, freedom, and allure of living in the Wild. So there's that.
Big difference in theme in this one is the whole "man is god to dog" thing, which I find less interesting than the "we're all malleable like clay" thing. So, even though this one is shorter and more to the point, I think I prefer old White Fang. That being said, if London had cut off the last 50 pages or so of WF, I think it would have been even better.
I can see why this is a book that many boys used to read as almost a rite of passage in American lit. I hope I can get mine to read it, though with competition from Harry Potter, Rick Riordan and Artemis Fowl, he's not much in the mood for American Realism... Ah, we'll see!
White Fang
It's riveting. London writes with an amazing ability to stay completely in the present. This leaves the reader scrabbling to figure out what will come next, but there is no sneaky planting of clues or leading you along. You just take each bite of the text and rush to gulp down the next so you can make sense of it all. This places us in the same position as the protagonist, White Fang. The key distinction between man and animals as defined by London at one point, is that they don't ask Why. Without the Why, we're constantly trying to make sense of the What from the limited perspective of a wild dog/husky mix. It's pretty intense.
Not sure what I think of all this "clay" talk. Basically it's nature v. nurture, but sometimes it feels as though London is playing fast-and-loose with that one. Despite all the talk about how all beings are shaped by their circumstances, he still makes reference to WF's basic "nature" and that kind of defeats the whole thing, doesn't it? If pressed, I think we'd find that Beauty Smith's nature outweighed the circumstances of his treatment due to being one ugly sonuvagun.
And, candidly, when I think of animal nature, at some point, I think we should have seen WF deal with the "call of the wild" female dog. Not so much. I read the intro and there is mention of that happening toward the end when WF is domesticated, but why wasn't he pulled away before? After all, his mother lured dogs away pretty easily just by frolicking around and being--female. Made even domestic dogs ditch the camp.
The descriptions of the beatings are hard going. They could have been worse, but, man, they are a heavy trip.
I think the general portrayal of the Indians was pretty shabby. The sour doughs were better, despite being more cruel. And finally, we meet our Grey Eyed Love Master and are supposed to be confident that WF's savior has arrived. I find this all a bit saccharine. Wish WF had bonded with Matt, the dog musher, but, oh well, that's not up to me.
I'm still riveted despite the fact that we're getting really Hallmark-y with WF's desperate efforts to stay with Scott. A bit hokey, but still a good read.
It would be fascinating to do a comparison between this and Kipling's Jungle Books. The portrayal of wild wolves is similar, but very different. This lacks the childlike magic of Mowgli's communication with the wolves, even though we theoretically get to know London's wolves better by being literally inside the head of his main character, White Fang.
Call of the Wild
Well, at this point, I'm kind of dogged out. This one is very similar to the other. Only difference is that this dog starts domestic and ends wild while the other was the opposite. Again, we have the crazy love between a dog and man. Meh. Again we have incidents of cruelty that make us cringe. Again we have some beautiful descriptions of the danger, freedom, and allure of living in the Wild. So there's that.
Big difference in theme in this one is the whole "man is god to dog" thing, which I find less interesting than the "we're all malleable like clay" thing. So, even though this one is shorter and more to the point, I think I prefer old White Fang. That being said, if London had cut off the last 50 pages or so of WF, I think it would have been even better.
I can see why this is a book that many boys used to read as almost a rite of passage in American lit. I hope I can get mine to read it, though with competition from Harry Potter, Rick Riordan and Artemis Fowl, he's not much in the mood for American Realism... Ah, we'll see!